In the Argonautica, a third-century Greek epic written by Apollonius of Rhodes, speeches, songs, and magic spells are crucial to the Argonauts’ quest for the Golden Fleece. The narrative emphasis on these particular skills is also connected with another departure from traditional epic, for in contrast to Iliadic verbal contests, which generally take place in public assemblies or on the battlefield, a number of dramatically significant conversations in the Argonautica are staged behind the scenes, as it were, in the private quarters of Aphrodite, Medea, and the Phaeacian rulers Alcinous and Arete. It is true, of course, that excellence in speaking is essential to Homeric warriors, as H. M. Roisman observes (Chapter 28, p. 429), and it is also true that important events like the embassy in Book 9 and Priam’s visit in Book 24 of the Iliad take place in Achilles’ tent. But what particularly distinguishes the Argonautica is its emphasis on rhetorical exchanges in private settings and, in addition, a marked preference for negotiation and alternatives to open aggression. While the Argonauts do fight in several skirmishes that explicitly evoke epic battle narratives,1 these incidental episodes (parerga) are comparatively brief and do little to diminish the shadow that falls, in this poem, on the glory ( kleos) of wartime slaughter.
Force is typically employed by the Argonauts only as a last resort, and much of the dramatic focus has shifted, oddly in a heroic epic, from martial to verbal exploits, and from the inevitability of death to the possibility of negotiation. This concern with a verbal arete that may be wielded strategically by both genders is arguably an inheritance from the speeches of long-suffering heroines in Attic tragedies and yet, while the nuances of Medea’s ethical dilemma are beautifully articulated in Book 3, the poem on the whole is concerned with the rhetorical agility of Jason, its central male character.2 Indeed, Medea’s intimate confessions and dark incantations can be seen
As the rhetorical allies of Jason’s ‘honey-sweet’ words:3 his capacity to charm, soothe, and manipulate his listeners in private and public settings alike. Throughout the poem we see words employed not only to create, resolve, and at times forestall political and emotional conflicts but also to oppose and overcome preternatural aggression, as when Medea calls down spirits of death against the bronze giant Talus (4.16651669).
Given the premium placed on the tactical effectiveness of the spoken word in this poem, it should come as no surprise that the greatest crisis of the Argonauts’ voyage is brought about by a tyrant’s refusal to yield to reasonable persuasion during a council. In contrast to the Iliad, which dramatizes Agamemnon’s inability to sway Achilles,4 the Argonautica maps out an intricate network of rhetorical acts that are meant to subvert and circumnavigate the will of Medea’s father Aietes, the ruler of Colchis. Hera begins plotting a romance between Jason and Medea before the Argonauts even meet the king, partly because she knows that the king is not susceptible to ‘honey-sweet words’ (epeessi... meilichiois, 3.14-15), and partly because she intends to punish the sacrilegious disrespect of Pelias, king of lolcus, by bringing Medea back with the Argonauts to Greece. To ensure that Medea returns with Jason, Hera and her ally Athena seek an audience with Aphrodite at the beginning of Book 3. During this meeting Hera persuades Aphrodite to use her influence with her son Eros and, inasmuch as Eros’ arrows are also said to ‘persuade’ (pithetai, 3.26)5 Medea to fall in love with Jason, the narrative focus on acts of persuasion, whether literal or metaphorical, is apparent.
The Argonauts are likewise forewarned about Aietes’ stubbornness when they rescue the shipwrecked sons of Phrixus. A fugitive from lolcus, Phrixus originally flew on the back of a magical golden ram to Colchis, where he married Aietes’ daughter, Chalciope. Their sons have attempted to sail back to Thessaly, but they lose their ship in a storm not far from Colchis. Like Hera, the sons of Phrixus very much doubt that Aietes will respond favorably to a stranger’s request for the Golden Fleece that has been taken from Phrixus’ ram, but Argus, the eldest, offers to help by introducing Jason to his imperious grandfather. Thus, as a result of the Argonauts’ meeting with the Sons of Phrixus, a second sequence of persuasive acts is set in motion, for not only will Argus seek to persuade Jason to accept help from two women, Chalciope and Medea, but also Jason in turn must persuade the Argonauts to do the same. When Chalciope asks Medea to help Jason perform the labors demanded by Aietes, these two sequences, the mortal and the immortal, begin to dovetail, for by this time Medea has already been ‘persuaded’ by Eros to help Jason. The crucial determinants of the Argonauts’ success are thus entirely bound up with the power of rhetoric, for Medea’s compliance is as over-determined by acts of persuasion as her father is resistant to them.
World History
